Life After Life
by Soshite
Summary: Life after life, they continued this eternal struggle which had spanned centuries. Zelda's soul has been reborn many times over, though her heart is slow to learn, it never really forgets. Especially him.


**Title: **Life After Life

**Author: **Soshite

**Summary:** Life after life, they continued this eternal struggle which had spanned centuries. Zelda's soul has been reborn many times over, though her heart is slow to learn, it never really forgets. Especially him.

**Rated: **T

**Disclaimer: **Do not own Legend of Zelda, its general franchise, the characters, story, etc...All I own are my own sorry ideas.

**Life After Life**

by Soshite

The kingdom was falling all around her; the flag of her once peaceful kingdom was burning up, reduced to charred pieces of empty pride. She was a young girl then, a princess of barely twelve years. Nowhere near enough to be considered marriageable, yet old enough to know why the world was crashing down on her head. She had told him – she had told them all, but none would listen to a silly little girl like her. Everyone had been too busy anticipating the day she turned thirteen and would be up for barter, like some lump of meat in the market. All the men of the court were too occupied with the pleasant future they could have by winning the crown princess to their side, dirty, filthy, unworthy old men as they were.

_But no one_, Zelda thought as she ran beside her nurse, frantically avoiding monsters and soldiers – and so much fire – _there was no one quite like that man who had caused all of this strife_.

The day the young royal had met that man from the desert, she knew that the proverbial clock had started ticking for their kingdom. It had only been a matter of time before Hyrule saw its end.

He had been shrewd and careful and ever so polite whenever they crossed paths, even kneeling as he greeted her with all the courtesy of a practiced courtier. That man had showered her with cheap, flattering words and she would toss back biting words veiled in civility, as befitting the ire of a princess who suspected foul play. The little girl had done everything in her power to warn everyone of that man; her words, though the words of someone of royal blood, fell on deaf ears. Princess or no, she was no adult, no _queen_ yet. Her words would hold no water in the court.

Zelda had tried so desperately. She really did.

And now look what had happened.

Hyrule was overrun with monsters and covered in a blanket of darkness as dark as the abyss. Evil was seeping into the blessed land of the Goddesses, all because of this usurper king. Of course, his victory could never be absolute – never absolute, as long as she lived to stop him. He would come after her with all the determination of a relentless, hungry wolf chasing its prey. To spite him, she would live. Princess Zelda would continue to live on and be forever a thorn in his side.

Even when Ganon had her cornered as he did now, stalking towards her and her nurse with a sick grin and a blood stained sword, she did not cry. She wouldn't given him the satisfaction of seeing her cry, for in her heart, a hate that would span centuries would not allow her to show weakness in front of his vile murderer.

And when he told him that he had killed her father, Zelda knew it in her heart of hearts that she would hate this man for as long as she lived.

**- = The Legend of Zelda = -**

Zelda had always felt extremely uncomfortable whenever her father's adviser visited her in the courtyard. The powerful magician would watch her quietly and do nothing that could threaten her in any manner – in fact, he was quite the gentleman. Sometimes, when the young maiden's curious and worried stare would meet his calm gaze, he would as her if his presence was bothering her at all and would leave, if she wished it. The princess told him that it was an honor to be in the same courtyard as the man who helped save her kingdom from drought and pestilence with his incredible magic. Saying this often reminded the blonde royal that this was a man to be trusted; perhaps he could grow on her the way he had on the king.

If only that were the case.

Somewhere within her breast, something was beating a terrible, dark rhythm that throbbed painfully whenever thoughts of the wizard entered her mind. Bile pushed at her throat, threatening to spill pass her lips; it was puzzling how the man suddenly caused her to be ill just by being in her musings. When Agahnim approached, she'd feel her breakfast from earlier in the day wanting to come up in a mess unbecoming of the princess of Hyrule; when he left her alone, there was a dull ache in her chest that refused to go away.

That man was trouble, she had told her father one day. The old man laughed at her after she explained her anxiety at the wizard's too close proximity and replied that, maybe, perhaps, his dearest daughter had fallen in love with their nation's hero.

Zelda made it a point never to speak to her father of such matters ever again, if _that_ was going to be his answer. Logically speaking, being lovesick shouldn't literally make one sick as a dog. Whatever feelings that were begotten from the man known as Agahnim, they weren't something as innocent as love. They were more like the feelings evoked whenever she came across a rat: loathing. Yes, that was what the word was. _Loathing_. She hated Agahnim with every fiber of her being – physically and spiritually.

It was odd that, since he hadn't done anything wrong to her and had even gone as far as to save her kingdom from total ruin. The princess in her knew that she should be catering to his every need and even consider the proper actions needed, now that her homeland was saved, such as marriage. Wouldn't that be such a wonderful gift to Hyrule's hero?

_Over her dead body._

But what was she to do? There was something prickling at the back of her mind, something off about everything, but the young lady had no idea what. Heart heart told her something was afoot and that there was something awful lurking behind the wizard's civil face. Her heart knew that the day Agahnim had been named the king's adviser that nothing would be the same ever again.

The day he sent her to the Dark World, he was still courteous and polite and the bile still wanted to rise in her throat, but Zelda could still acknowledge his good manners. Right until Link showed up, of course, but the wizard got points for trying in her case. That didn't mean the princess forgave him his actions or the fact that he was, in reality, an alter ego for the King of Evil himself. It wasn't a wonder that her whole being recoiled from being near Agahnim.

It still made no sense to her how she could hate a person she barely knew, though.

**- = The Legend of Zelda = -**

The Kingdom of Hyrule had been taken over without so much as a drop of blood spilled. The sudden occupation of the blessed golden land was just that – sudden and very swift. No one had seen it coming – not even her; something Zelda regretted to this very day. Before anyone had known it, the princess had the hard choice of going to war or surrendering to the invading forces: she chose to surrender, knowing that her people knew not the ways of battle past border disputes and strong-arming thieves in the castle town. The princess' own experience came from book learning and lectures – nowhere could the young woman learn what it was to carry and sword and to spill another person's blood.

Zelda truly hated herself for giving up so easily, but she was banking on the knowledge that this state of affairs would not last for long. The goddesses would not allow Hyrule to remain this way for a long period of time, unless they deemed it so. There had been tales of times passed, their country had been covered in darkness before, in which their salvation would appear to rescue them all from their plight. All the legends told by word of mouth were varied, but they always contained the same elements.

A land in peril, a princess in danger, a hero with the mark of the Triforce and a villain so vile that it was considered bad luck to utter his name aloud now. Only the truly unrepentant – or brave - were

able to speak the wicked king's name anymore. It was silly of course, Zelda had reasoned as a child, a name was just that – a name. A label. Something to which a person or object may be called. It became so that no one knew his spoken name anymore and it could only be known through writing and not many were blessed with enough coin to gain any sort of higher education beyond simple arithmetic. It was all silly superstition, though. Names had no power.

But _his_ did.

When they had appeared in her throne room to seize her and control of the kingdom, only one person had to murmur _his_ name and an unnatural chill went up the woman's spine. The man's very name made the ruler's skin crawl and she was hard pressed not to vomit as well; such was the power of Ganon's name to her ears. It was as if someone had uttered a curse upon her.

Ganon was the usurper's 'god', something Zelda couldn't quite wrap her mind around. And his will was her captor's will; he would have Hyrule one way or another, whether she surrendered or not. His ultimatum was to give-up or die along with her people, who would have been slaughtered for their leader's foolish pride. Thankfully, Zelda was no fool and acquiesced regretfully.

She had to remind herself that they would all be saved, soon enough.

The rules laid out before Hyrule were extremely strict, but surprisingly fair, considering the source. The stipulations for the princess, herself, were much more lax though – even more surprising than the ordains made by the usurper to her throne. In fact, it really seemed like no one cared whether she lived or died, as long as the princess kept well out of the way.

Zelda didn't know if she should feel relieved or highly insulted that they all thought so little of her. Although a royal, they were clearly underestimating the amount of trouble she could cause – especially since the door to the room she had been placed in was totally unlocked. A gross oversight, to be sure.

However, she stayed there, waiting for the hero to arrive, as he always did in times of old. Zelda knew that the one fated to save Hyrule would come eventually; it was a strong belief, she had, relative to one believing in the sun rising and falling. And came, he did, a boy barely in the throes of adulthood, garbed in green and bearing his shield and sword proudly as if he had seen over a million battles. Perhaps he had. And together they faced the demons overtaking Hyrule head-on; taking down each and every enemy one by one, until they faced him in all of his madness.

Strangely enough, the _ever_-so-appealing action of throwing up her lunch or the shot of pain in her chest that followed a proclamation of Ganon's name never came. There was still something aching inside of her, but it turned into something new. It did not have much time to evolve into something else, as the final blow had pierced his ever-black heart.

**- = The Legend of Zelda = -**

It was pandemonium. Hyrule was under siege once again, after it had finally established peace between itself and the surrounding kingdoms. War had taken place, ravaged the kingdom and the outer provinces; many villages had been left in ruins and farmlands bore horrible scars that could never heal. The last thing the 'Golden Land' needed was to be thrown into chaos once again.

However, what came for the Hylians and the Gorons and the Zora and the Kokiri – what came to tear away what meager peace they still possessed, was something no one had any control over. What had they done to deserve this? Why was this happening to them? How could this be happening?

Hyrule was being flooded.

_It was all wrong_, a voice inside of Zelda – barely any older than fourteen at the time – had said, deep within her heart. _This wasn't how things were supposed to happen._ There had been no great evil that had plagued them – no evil king to come and claim what pieces of the legendary Triforce that was left in the world as his own. It was too late; no one would be able to claim those lost pieces anymore.

All that there was, was a madman the princess used to refer to as 'father'.

Old Daphnes Nohansen was a mad ruler, who saw only darkness in others – even in his own child! It was only through the power of the army and her supporters that kept Princess Zelda inside the castle walls and had the king thrown out on his behind. Of course, the king had his own group of willful supporters who actively condoned his terrible, cruel regime wherein the people only lived for the monarchy and nothing else. All foodstuffs, cloths, furs, land, mineral and every last person belonged to the king and he did with them as he pleased. His rule had been a selfish and bizarre one with claims of being blessed by the Goddesses; he could hear their voices and, therefore, their will.

Things hadn't always been so bad. If only her mother hadn't died, then, perhaps, her father's sanity might have been saved. Now, Zelda could only wish that his madness wasn't hereditary.

The war been an internal one at first, between herself and her deposed father whose claim to the kingdom had only been in name, rather than right. The only one who had the right to rule Hyrule, was one who was of royal blood. The last person in the royal bloodline was Princess Zelda herself. However, the dispute had spread, the kingdoms that neighbored them were sticking their noses into their business and then it had turned into full blown war. Each battle had been grueling and bloody and full of senseless violence, all because of a dispute of the right to rule.

Perhaps this was why the goddesses saw fit to drown them all in water.

It was all they could do to evacuate as many people as possible; livelihoods were washed away in rapid waters and homes torn asunder by unforgiving waves and torrents. This flood had come out of nowhere and seemed almost too cruel for their benevolent goddesses to curse them with. Never in the known history of the land had the goddesses themselves ever put a hand into the affairs of their blessed creations; everything had always been settled by the chosen three, their proxies in the world of mortals. But not this time.

_Everything is wrong._

This time, the King of Evil was their very own would-be ruler, trying to reclaim that which had never been his...had taken control over a land that had never belonged to him in the first place and tried to covet it as his own, selfishly and cruelly.

_Everything is wrong._

Sadly, there had been no hero to stand up against him, no matter how much the crown princess had called and pleaded. Zelda had always been told that a Hero would appear in Hyrule's time of need, but why – why did he not come when she had prayed so hard for Hyrule's salvation? Everyone had worked so hard to re-establish peace in the kingdom...so why? Why...?

Princess Zelda had been praying again, one last time, as water began closing in on the castle. Her personal guards and advisers had moved onwards without her on the princess' orders. They were to help with the evacuation of Hyrule and its inhabitants. They had to save as many lives as they could, by bringing them up towards the mountain tops where they could be safe. As for her, she prayed and prayed and pleaded with all her young heart had to offer. First to Nayru, for her Wisdom had to see that all of this was too cruel and unjust. She then went on to Farore, calling out her name and demanding she send them her chosen champion – to give them back their Hero so he could right this wrong, somehow!

And Zelda cried out to Din to do something, since Zelda herself was powerless to stop the suffering of her people as their homeland was being covered up with vengeful waters.

Din answered, though not in a way the young royal had expected.

_You must live._

It was then that one of Zelda's guardians during the war, a knight by the name of Nango whose appearance was quite curious as he did not resemble any Hylian the princess had ever seen. In all honesty, she felt a little repulsed whenever she found his large frame too close to her own, but had grown accustomed to it. At least she didn't jump away from him, as if her whole body was repelled. He had, after all, saved her life more than once in all the years she had known him.

And he would do it again, he had told her as he ran with her in his strong arms. Not just for the kingdom's sake, but for her own. She had to live. It was imperative that Hyrule's royal line survived into the future.

Zelda asked him, "Why?" Such an open-ended question: Why all this tragedy? Why did her father go mad? Why was she the only one to have survived?

Why did he care whether she lived or died?

"Because you are _my_ princess," Nango replied, a hint of possessiveness the royal didn't think he had in his deep, rumbling voice. It should have troubled the girl back then, to hear such a tone concerning her, but the young lady found that she did not care. Nor did she want to. The girl just held onto her knight and let him carry her to safety.

And in her heart of hearts, she felt it strongly: _Everything is wrong_.

**- = The Legend of Zelda = -**

This was right, Zelda thought, as she sat alone in her chambers, staring up at the night sky. This was right and how she wanted it to be. Their beginning had been rocky, at first, with lots of drama thrown in here and there, but the two of them had somehow gotten through it and had grown-up from the entire ordeal. And now they were getting married and, she felt, this was how things should turn out.

Their two kingdoms would greatly benefit from their union as well, not just them.

Still, many had wondered how such two opposing persons could ever have fallen in love with one another. Zelda's own people had bastardized their future king the moment they found out who their princess had decided to wed in lieu of other possible suitors vying for her hand. The man had been old, the kingdom protested, much older than their young ruler and had had taken mistresses. Worse yet, he had the name of a man who once terrorized all of Hyrule and anyone with the same name had to be bad luck, somehow; cursed.

A man named Ganon marrying into the royal family was a bad omen. The princess should know that; in fact, her whole being should have told her to stay away from the man.

Zelda didn't mind what anyone said and told her beloved that he shouldn't either. None of them knew the circumstances in which the two royals had met or what they faced together to reach this point in time. None of them would understand how much she truly loved her future king, in spite of the past. A terror called Ganon would rise up and try to take Hyrule with force and years upon years of a dark reign would follow? Poppycock. The Hylian princess did not believe in such nonsense and even if the legends were true, one might supposed that she had subverted all of that by willingly becoming Ganon's queen.

No coaxing, no cajoling, no holding her kingdom's peace over her head. She had come to that decision on her own and of her own free will. Perhaps a part of her had once thought this act wrong, a long time ago, but now, nothing would stop her from marrying this wonderful man. Time and time again, he had proven himself a worthy equal, one that Zelda didn't think she deserved, in all honesty. Not with how his people had been treated and how his bride had once treated him, too. Inferior, dirty, savage..._evil_.

"Zelda?" a deep familiar voice called, from outside her chamber door. Turning around, she saw her beloved walk in and she took on a mock serious face as she approached the older man.

"You do realize that you've jinxed the wedding, my lord?" she asked, a fine golden brow rising. "It's tradition in Hyrule that the groom shan't see the bride before the wedding proper and I thought we had agreed on _that_, at least."

Ganon grinned insolently and sketched a not-at-all apologetic bow to his lady love. "Forgive me, princess, but I simply could not forgo a day without your bright and _cheerful_ presence," sneered the 'King of Evil', as some were wont to call him. Mainly the citizens living within the borders of Hyrule itself. "I think I would _die_ without purpose, if I could not see you."

Those last words were truer than the king let on and Zelda could sense the meaning behind the rough facade this man had and softened, taking one of his hands in both of hers.

"We shall be together soon. Always," she told him, earnestly.

He grunted, "Your people will not want this."

Narrowing her blue eyes, the princess shook her head. "They don't know you the way I do."

"You barely know me."

Not this argument again; they had had it quite a few times before and always over the same old thing. She knew him. In her heart of hearts, she knew this man like she knew that Nayru's blessings were in her bloodline and will remain so, for the rest of eternity. Though there had been little details exchanged between the two royals in the months they had gotten to know one another, Zelda had been content with what she had witnessed and experienced for herself firsthand. Actions poke louder than words, after all, and he deserved a clean slate just as anyone did.

"I know you enough," Zelda replied. Pulling at his hand, though her strength was meager at best compared to his, he came towards her and accepted the younger woman's embrace wordlessly, his other hand coming from behind her to rest atop her golden head. "I've known you for what feels like ages, upon ages and I won't let you go."

Ganon sighed quietly at her words, looking out distantly to the stars.

"One day, princess, you just might have to."

Her grip tightened on him, heart beating rapidly in her chest.

"Never."

Sadly, never was too indefinite a promise or too short a span of time, as Zelda and Ganon never managed to marry as the man had mysteriously disappeared, leaving the princess waiting at the altar. The kingdom, as a whole, had said, "Good riddance!"

The princess, still waiting even after a week for her groom to come, felt her heart wrench itself within her. It already knew what had happened and her mind did not wish to understand why it was happening. And she waited still, even more, wondering where Ganon had gone.

And though the woman, being engaged to another one year later to another man, should have hated the desert king for leaving her behind so abruptly – truly, he was an evil king – Zelda found that she could not do it. The hate that should have had her simmering for years, especially when he returned a changed man worthy of the title her people so often spat, had burnt itself out leaving behind only one truth...

She still loved this man with every beat of her heart.

Even as he laid bleeding still on the ground, slain by the Chosen Hero, she sat beside him and held his hand, saying to the maddened, dying sorcerer that she wouldn't let him go.

In a short bout of lucidity, he said, "You have to."

She gripped his hand tightly, sitting there rigidly as his blood stained her gown, staring down at his cooling corpse. The woman could have cried, but she did not, thinking that it wasn't right for her to be crying over him like this...to be crying again over him. This man that had both repulsed and fascinated her to no end. This man who tricked her heart into loving him.

Zelda would not cry and would not let go.

"Never again," whispered the princess. The young woman knew that when he died here, in her heart of hearts, she would never love another man ever again.

**- = The Legend of Zelda = -**

"Not again!"

Zelda stared down the monster that was coming at her and Link, her gloved hands trembling terribly as she held the Bow of Light. She let loose one arrow and missed her shot, the little bolt glancing off the beast's hide. Snorting angrily, it turned its sights onto her and charged wildly and had Link not been there to shove her out of the way, the princess might have ended up skewered on one of the large creature's tusks. When she fell, her bow had fallen to the stone floor, sliding some meters away from her – right out of reach!

_Not again_, the princess thought in frustration. Losing one of the two weapons that could defeat this beast was not conducive to its defeat and restoring the world to balance!

The land of Zelda's ancestors had been in immense turmoil, because a pair of dark witches wished to return the King of Evil back into Hyrule and only with the power of its Crown Princess and Royal Knight had most of the trouble been averted with as few fatalities and casualties as humanly possible. It had been a long ride to get to this point, freeing village after village of monsters and darkness caused by the witches, finding these ancient relics left behind by the Legendary Hero and the Princess of Destiny herself to combat their foes.

Still, nothing could have prepared the two fighters for the monster that would come after them.

As a child, the Crown Princess of Hyrule had heard nightmarish tales of the King of Evil, which had made the little girl recoil in fear whenever she heard his name, the man in the tales becoming her personal boogeyman in childhood. When she grew-up, things had obviously changed as the things that used to haunt her nightmares had become an all too physical reality.

And it was up to her to stop it!

With the help of the Hero, of course. Link had always been a faithful knight of the court, having served since he was a child and forcing his way up through the ranks – anything to be with his childhood best friend, Princess Zelda. He had promised to protect her, no matter what, viewing her as his own little, flesh and blood sister when the Hylian had no other family to call his own.

And he was rolling to the side, having gotten her safely out of Ganon's way, glaring at the monster as it prepared itself for another charge at them. Letting out a humungous roar that shook the foundations of the castle, he tore after Zelda, ignoring the blond hero as he tried to distract him. He was trying to make an opening for the princess to grab her bow so she could shoot the magical arrows into the Evil King's heart again; it was his own weak spot.

Ganon knocked Link to the side as the warrior swiped at his ribs with the Master Sword, stunning the young man temporarily as the beast made way for Zelda once again. He knew the princess was the bigger threat to him right now, as her arrows were the only thing to pierce his hide. Lunging at her, the beast had the girl pinned down to the ground with his cloven feet, his damp breath tickling her face as he panted above her, unmoving.

_Oh, Goddesses, I'm going to die!_ Zelda thought, panicked. Her small, frailer body would not withstand a full on attack at this range and with Link temporarily knocked out the princess would be ripped to shreds in seconds!

But...why didn't he strike? Ganon had her there, under him; under his mercy and power. The monster could do whatever he please now with no Hero to hinder him in any way. But he just stayed there, on all fours, staring down at the princess in his grasp with his golden eyes...eyes that Zelda could just no tear away from.

A princess usually had expectations of the time she would glimpse into a monster's eyes, right before the kill. There would be feral rage, tinged with madness; saliva would be dripping from his mouth, getting all over her clothes or face and she would recoil at the stench. And whatever else she would view in those eyes would paralyze her and make her want to vomit and be anywhere else than there.

However, all she saw in those beastly gold eyes were none of those things.

There was a longing in them and Zelda's heart skipped a beat and _ached_ at the sight of them. Ganon growled at her, still remaining where he was, calm as a beast could be as he sniffed her hair. Zelda could not believe it. Just what was the beast up to? Hundreds of years of hate and misery and centuries long cycles of power struggles and usurped thrones accumulated to nothing, but a _snuffle_ close to her ear? Ganon was almost placid above her, though the very real danger of being torn apart still rested in the air.

The very real threat of losing her kingdom to the darkness was still bearing down on her head!

Suddenly regaining her resolve to fight, magic welled up within the princess and she blasted Ganon away with her light, sending him to the opposite end of the battlefield. Link was still out, but she could see the Master Sword close at hand and took the heavy weapon up. Something had taken hold of the royal and she would not stop until the beast that was causing so much trouble in her kingdom laid dead at her feet, an age old hatred suddenly coming over her. Magic sparking at her fingertips, she put everything she had into the Blade of Evil's Bane, making the sword glow brighter than it ever had before. The monstrous beast was getting its second wind, but Zelda would not allow the epitome of her childhood nightmares – nay, the nightmare of her entire kingdom to wreak havoc any longer!

Rushing forward, Zelda let out a battle cry, sword poised over her shoulder. Reaching Ganon before he could reach her, she thrusted the sword into his chest, staggering when the blade touched bone and did not pierce its intended target. With her foe momentarily stunned from the first blow, she pulled back her weapon and plunged it in one more, the blade sliding effortlessly into Ganon's body, surely ripping his heart in two. But she did not stop just there and pushed harder until the Master Sword was fully sheathed into him.

Stumbling backward, Zelda watched as Ganon writhed, the combined holy magic of the princess and the sword transforming him into solid rock, bit by bit, until he became an impromptu pedestal for the Blade of Evil's Bane.

Zelda could barely register Link's groan of pain nearby as she sunk to her knees, the deed finally done and her kingdom saved. The dark clouds that littered her kingdom's sky began to break, some rays of sun shining through like rays of hope. Panting and gasping from the effort she had given, blue eyes looked up into soulless rock eyes of her kingdom's immortal enemy; defeated once again, but not gone. Never gone. And yet...

"...Zelda? Are you alright? Are you hurt?" Link asked, fumbling his way over to his princess. The knight had a very worried expression on his face and he really needn't be so worried, since he had been the one injured the most in this final battle between them and Ganon. She barely had a scratch. Her own face must have shown her confusion as the blond man reached out with a finger, brushing against her cheek. Pulling back, Zelda saw the moisture there on the skin of his finger.

She was crying. The royal had been so numb after the deed had been done, that she had temporarily lost all sense of her faculties. Upon realizing she was crying, the princess noticed that there was a stinging, agonizing ache within her and it made it difficult to breathe. It was utterly bizarre, how her heart was wrenching itself so much and she had no idea why. They had won. She had won. All those hard won battles and lost live had not been in vain. The King of Evil had been staved off yet again, so why was she so sad?

It couldn't be because of Ganon, could it? She barely knew him. He hadn't known her.

He was the man responsible for the death of her father and for putting Hyrule in turmoil.

She was his enemy and the one responsible for the final blow that took him from the Golden Land once more.

She should hate this man.

But...

There was only pity and sadness and a heartache Zelda couldn't possibly describe, in her heart of hearts.

Her heart, the woman thought in the day after Hyrule was restored to its former rule, was slow to learn what was the most obvious thing in the world, but it would never truly forget its old lessons.

And she wouldn't forget him, short as their time together had been.


End file.
